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(No Model.)

P. E. KENYON.

MECHANICAL MUSICAL INSTRUMENT.

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f UNITED STATES FRANK ERNEST KEN YON,

PATENT OFFICE.

OF ITHACA, NE'W YORK.

MECHANICAL MUSICAL INSTRUMENT.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 358,157, dated February 22, 1887.

Application filed September 13, 1886. Sci-i:llNo.2i.',411. (No model.)

T all whom it may ccncern.-

Be it known that I, FRANK ERNEsr KENYoN, a citizen of the United States, residing at Ithaca, Tompkins county, New York, have invented certain Improvements in Musical Instruments, of which the following is a speciiication, reference being had to the accompanying drawings.

My invention relates to that class of musical instruments that use perforated material for producing the notes of theinstrument; and my invention will be apparent as I describe it.

Figure l is a sectional elevation of a dulcimer or harmonicon with my invention applied to it. Fig. 2 is an elevation with the same applied in a diverse form. Fig. 3 is a ground plan. Fig. 4 is a detached sectional view cf the pin-case. Fig. 5 is a View of the under side of a perforated musical sheet or slide, and Fig. 6 is a section of a pin case made as part of a cylinder. Fig. 7 is a transverse section of Y, a part of Fig. 4.

In the figures, a indicates the bed-piece of the instrument, and b the music-plates insulated and held by and to the supports below them, in the usual manner of the instrument represented, and which plates are struck by the hammers c, which are on the ends of the rods-c of Fig. 1, or are made las parts of the wood rods and hammers of Fig. 2. The rods are hinged at c, and have the check post or piece 0, which is composed of a suitable support, on which I place, as in Fig. 2, the elastic bed c5, on which an end of a set-screw falls, which is fast to the hammers, and holds the hammers c clear of the plates; or, as in Fig. l, the elastic piece is on the rod and the set-screw in the support. The setscrew adjusts the hammers to the plates. The ends of the hammer-rods have at ci a projecting point or catch from the hinge-plate ci, that engages with the pins c, by which the hammers are raised. The pins c are capable of being placed in the periphery of a cylinder, e, Fig. l, or in the straight case e4 of Fig. 2. In either form the parts used are the same, and are shown in Figs. 4 and 6, where e is the back of the case and e 6 the two thin perforated metal pinplates. The back e retains the headed pins e in the case, and the plates e 6 hold the pins in their proper place and allow the motion provided for by the perforated music sheet, card, or roll f.

When the cylinder form is used, the cylinder is rotated as the arrow indicates, a crank, d, acting on t-he pinion d, and by it on the cogwheel d', Fig. 3; and it is apparent iu Fig.

l that, since the pins move by gravity or their own weight, the dotted line x across the cylinder indicates the extremes of their projec` which they do not project. That is, the cylinder, with the construction shown in Fig. 6, rotating, the pins, by gravity, fall and are held by their heads on the top of the plate 6, Figs. 4 and 5, and remain with their heads there and their points projecting outward until at or near the upper part of the line x, when they fall backward ou the back e, which holds them with their extreme ends just out of the cylinder, as shown. The same is the case as to their projection by gravity in the straightcase form e of Fig. 2. Now, when a pin comes in contact with the projecting catch of the music-plate hammers it raises a hammer. By this means a perforated music sheetV or card is enabled to causeany one or more of the hammers to be-raised in succession, as required by the tune perforated in the sheet or card. Such a sheet or card is indicated in Fig. 5- that is, there is made at the intersections of the longitudinal and transverse lines perforations, and the pins that are at the perforations of the'sheet go through the perforations when the case is reversed to the position shown in Fig. 4. Then, by the cogs d', the case and the sheet are, by the pinion d, moved through the slideways ofFig. 2. (Seen in Fig. 7.) 'Theprojecting pins engaging with the catches c" play the tune. The sheets are changeable in the case. The case and sheets are slid in at the left hand of Fig. 2, and are held down by the roller h, which has the rubber coveringi, and move to the right hand, coming out ot' the slideways or frame at the right hand at the end ofthe tune. A pin is in the plates e at every crossing of the lines ofFig. 5.

it the flexible perforated music-sheet, that may contain one or many tunes. This best enters or comes in contact with the cylinder c at w',

In the cylinder form of Fig. l a flexiblesk sheet is used; hence a roller, z', has wound on tion as well as the part of the cylinder in Y lOO (the lower end of the line 00,) because there the pins e do not project, and as the cylinder rotaies the pins that are at the perforations in the music-sheet slide out by gravity and are ready to engage with the catches c of the hammers. The sheet bends about the cylinder until the pins fall out of the sheet at or near x of the line x, when the sheet goes to the roller j. Thus a convenient and long ribbon sheet is made and used. Y

rllhe best means of holding the ribbon-sheet at a proper tension is to have the roller j contain the well-known single, double, or triple wire coiled spring j', (indicated by dotted lines on the rollerj, Fig. 3,) familiarlyknown by its use in window-curtain rollers, as this enables several yards of ilexible sheet to be used with a nearly uniform tension; hence the rollerj is shown longer in Fig. Sthan the roller i; but as I design to make cheap toy instruments as well as apply my gravity-pins c to stringed and wind instruments, for the toy form I make a table atless cost than the roller; hence in Fig. l at a, by dotted lines a plain table is shown, on which the entering sheet rests, whenceit bends downunderthe cylinder e and at the table a emerges.

To facilitate the entrance of the perforated music-sheets, pins or hooks m are put in the edges of the cylinder at intervals, on which the sheets are secured by the perforations m', Figs. .Sand 5. Aspring, c", pulls each hammer-pod downward until stopped by the setscr w 0'.

In Fig. 3 the lower half of the hammers are shown to be round balls on small rods, and the upper half of them are represented to be flat wood rods, shaped as seen in Fig. 2. The plates 6 e and pins e are omitted in the cutaway space of the left hand of Fig. 2, so that the cogs d may be seen. The size shown ofthe pins is about two-thirds their actual length; but they may be of any convenient size and length. The pins maybe operated by springs when the case is placed in positions where gravity cannot operate them. The case is inverted to put in a straight music-sheet, in order that the pins may rest on the back e.

I am aware that musical instruments with movable rods or pins in a cylinder and with perforated music-sheets have been mademas, for example, in the expired English Patent No. 12,421 of A. D. 18M).

I claiml. In a musical instrument, the pins e, made with heads on their upper ends, in combination with the back e, and the supporting and guide plates c ew.

2. In a musical instrument, the pin-ease constructed of the back e, and plates 6 e, in combination with the headed pins c.

3. In a musical instrument, the cylinder c, provided with the pin back e", plates 0" c', and pins e.

4. In a musical instrument, a table constructed of the parts n n', supporting and conducting the perforated music-sheet to the side of the cylinder c, where the pins do not project, and retaining it in contact with the plate e ofthe cylinder until the sheet reaches the exit from the cylindeigwhere the pins are withdrawn into the cylinder, as set forth.

5. In a musiealinst-rument, theset-screw 0', in combination with the rest 0, and elastic bed c5, and hammer-rod c.

6. In a musical instrument, the combination of the piucase composed of the hack c", headed pins c', holdingplates e 0, and rack d', operated in supporting-guideways by crank and pinion, with the pivoted hammers, soundingplates b, and music-sheetf.

FR ANK ERNEST KENYON.

Witnesses:

S. J. PARKER., E. S. KnNYoN. 

